University of Toronto Math Club

Alexander Remorov

Properties of Integers
Theory
In all of the following problems we will be dealing with integers (usually non-negative integers).
We say an integer a is divisible by b if a = bk where k is some integer. This is written as b|a. The
number b is called the divisor of a.
An integer p is called prime if it has exactly two divisors: 1 and itself. Every integer can be
expressed in a unique way as a product of primes: a = pk11 pk22 ...pknn .
General Rules for Divisibility
1. If a, b are positive integers, and a is divisible by b, then a b.
2. If a is divisible by b and k is any integer, then ka is divisible by b.
3. If a is divisible by b, and c is divisible by b, then a + c and a c are divisible by b.
4. If a = ck and b = dk, where k is some integer, then if a is divisible by b, then c is divisible by d.
5. If a is divisible by b and c, where b and c are primes, then a is divisible by bc.
6. If ak is divisible by a prime p, then a is also divisible by p.

Exercises
1. Prove that the only even prime number is 2.
2. Express the following numbers as products of primes: 6, 14, 25, 27, 210, 1000, 1001, 2010.
3. Show that the product of any 2 consecutive integers is divisible by 2; the product of any 3
consecutive integers is divisible by 6; the product of any 5 consecutive integers is divisible by 120.
4. Let p and q be prime numbers. How many divisors do the following numbers have: pq, pq 2 , p4 , p3 q 2 ?
5. Show that a number is a perfect square only when the number of its divisors is odd.
6. If a + 1 is divisible by 3, prove that 10a 2 is divisible by 3.
7. If m + 2 and 46 n are both divisible by 11, show that m + n is also divisible by 11.
8. If a2 is divisible by 6, show that a2 is divisible by 36.
9. Show that if t is a positive integer and t2 divides t, then t = 1.
10. If a, b are positive integers, and a divides b2 and b2 divides a, then a = b2 .
11. Show that there is no integer value of x such that 4x2 6x + 13 = 0.
12. Do there exist positive integers so that the product of their digits is 2010?

Problems
1. Show that if n is even, then n3 4n is always divisible by 48.
2. Show that if a2 9ab + b2 is divisible by 11, then a2 b2 is also divisible by 11. (Hint: try to
use rule 6 for divisibility and remainders).
3. Show that the number n4 + 4 is not prime.
4. Let p, q be primes. How many divisors does the number pn q m have? (n, m are non-negative
integers).
5. Prove that there are infinitely many prime numbers.
6. Given m, n are positive integers; m divides n2 , n2 divides m3 , m3 divides n4 , n4 divides m5 ...
Show that m = n.
7. P is a polynomial with all coefficients integers, and a, b, c are different positive integers. Show
that it is impossible to have P (a) = b, P (b) = c, P (c) = a.
8. Do the previous problem, but now if a, b, c are different integers (not necessarily positive).